The Unshakeables

Barry Brennan and Steven Katz built Flying Lion around a simple but ambitious idea — put drones in the sky to protect people on the ground. They pioneered a “drone as first responder” business for private security and commercial operations. It was a niche few were willing to bet on, but Barry went all in. Then one contract tripled their workload overnight. For a year, they ran nonstop to keep up — until five employees quit at once, leaving Barry and Steven to hold it all together. In this episode, Stevie Baron, CEO of Chase for Business, joins Kathleen Griffith for the first time to talk with Barry about scaling before you’re ready, what a mass resignation teaches you about building a team and what it really means to be first on the scene. These are The Unshakeables. Learn more at chase.com/business.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Daisy Kelly and Jay Simpson met working at Blue Origin, the aerospace company founded by Jeff Bezos. When they decided to start Multi-Axis Technologies — a machine shop in Kent, Washington — they used personal savings to purchase secondhand machines and sign a five-year lease before they had a single customer. They set out to solve a problem they kept seeing firsthand, shops that could not reliably deliver the speed and precision teams like theirs needed. From the start, their partnership was the foundation of the business, but when one of their busiest machines broke down mid-schedule, Daisy and Jay found out just how far a partnership could be stretched. In this episode, Ben and Kathleen talk about finding — and keeping — the right business partner. Ben also has some news of his own. These are The Unshakeables.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Elon Elezra moved to Alabama for college and never left. A gig fixing iPhones in his dorm room turned into running storefronts for the largest reselling platform in the world, doing roofing repair, and buying real estate. He spent years treating every venture as a classroom, seeing a lesson in every hardship. But ambition has a price. When Elon tackled one of his first major commercial renovations, the project became a crash course in everything that can go wrong — and how much it costs to find out. In this episode, Ben and Kathleen talk with Elon about what he has learned and how he has defined his own American dream. After successfully selling his garage door company, Elon continues to dream for more. These are The Unshakeables.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Max Siegelman had a logo before he had a brand — borrowed from his father's harness racing stable, Siegelman Stable. The logo felt like it was meant to be on a hat, so when the pandemic hit, Max put $600 down and started making them. No outside money, no rapid scaling. He funded each production run with returns from the last, built buzz with rappers and shipped hats to the NBA Bubble in 2020. Then in 2022, one of his hats ended up on Kendall Jenner during Paris Fashion Week. Max had 15 minutes to get his website ready and he made the moment count.  Join Ben and Kathleen as they talk to Max about building a luxury brand on legacy and scarcity, why limited drops beat mass production, and how travel fuels the aspirational mystique that makes Siegelman Stable impossible to ignore. These are The Unshakeables.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christopher Borgatti learned the business from his father. His son, Christopher, learned it from him. Since 1935, four generations of Borgattis have been rolling pasta in the same Bronx shop through the Depression, through WWII, through changing neighborhoods, through the internet age and through a pandemic. The name on the door has never changed. Neither has the commitment to quality.  But legacy does not mean easy. When bird flu sent egg prices through the roof, the Borgattis absorbed the cost rather than pass it on to their customers. When the ravioli machine broke in the middle of Christmas week, their most critical week of the year, they did not close up shop. They fixed it.  Join Ben and Kathleen as they talk with Christopher and Christopher about what it really means to be a neighborhood institution, why putting customers over profits is both a values decision and a business strategy and how a family pasta shop has outlasted nearly a century of American upheaval. These are The Unshakeables.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.